Weekly Current Affairs Digest Capsule – 3

Weekly Current Affairs Digest has been specially been compiled by us to help you stay aware of all the events that happen around you and the world. Our daily current affairs digest will help you immensely while revising for the general awareness sections of all major competitive examinations.

Weekly Current Affairs Digest

1. Investigators are looking for those behind the hack that affected systems at banks, hospitals and government agencies globally, media reports said.Technical staff scrambled on Sunday to patch computers and restore infected ones.

2. Rafael Nadal beat Dominic Thiem to clinch his fifth Madrid Open title. With this victory, he has won three straight titles after Barcelona Open and Monte Carlo Masters victories.

3. India has climbed up to twenty sixth positions in World Bank’s electricity accessibility ranking.Piyush Goyal exuded confidence that by 2019 the government would able to take power to every household.

4. The sale of high-tech chemical protective clothing worth $75 million by the US to India which will protect Indian soldiers against biological and chemical warfare reflects growing bilateral defence relationship.

5. Lewis Hamilton has won the Spanish Grand Prix from pole position in the Formula One championshipThis is Hamilton’s 55th career win and second win of the season. Mercedes’s Hamilton finished 3.4 seconds ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel

6. Indian Navy and the Space Application Centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Data Sharing and Scientific cooperation in the field of Meteorology and Oceanology.

7. French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Edouard Philippe as the new prime minister of France. Edouard Philippe is the second-youngest Prime Minister of France after Laurent Fabius (1984 to 1986), who was 37 at the time of appointment.

8. The partnership of Deepti Sharma and Poonam Raut scored 320 in 45.3 overs in 45.3 overs to become the world’s first pair, either male or female, to forge a 300-run opening-wicket partnership in One-Day Internationals (ODIs).

9. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Narmada Seva Mission for the conservation of river Narmada, which is a lifeline of Madhya Pradesh

10. Kerala and Tamil Nadu have secured first and second rankings for the second consecutive year in public affairs index (PAI) released by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bengaluru.

11. 18-year-old from Tamil Nadu designs world’s lightest satellite. This satellite was selected through a competition called ‘Cubes in Space’, jointly organised by NASA and ‘I Doodle Learning’.This will be the first time an Indian student’s experiment – a 64 gm satellite – will be flown by NASA.

12. Proxima B was discovered in August, and is just 4.2 light years away from Earth.Researchers have used a Met Office model to predict the climate on the planet.

13. It is no longer safe to deal with excessive cash, tax-evaded money: 91 lakh new taxpayers have been added and more than 30 crore PAN allocated after government’s note ban move

14. In the report titled, World Economic Situation and Prospects, the UN has projected a 7.3% growth for India in 2017.Earlier in the report’s January edition, UN had forecasted a growth of 7.7% for the year. The revised report also has predicted an impressive 7.9% GDP growth for the year 2018 which is an increase from its January estimate of 7.6%

15. Mt Lhotse has recorded its first summit in 3 years. It is the fourth highest mountain in the world. Indian climber Debasish Biswas and a woman climber from New Zealand were the first to successfully climb Mt Lhotse after a team of Sherpas fixed the route to summit.

17. India has received a stay order preventing Pakistan from executing the death sentence awarded to the former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav from the International Court of Justice at The Hague.

18. General Motors Co will stop selling cars in India from the end of this year, drawing a line under two decades of battling in one of the world’s most competitive markets where it has less than a one percent share of passenger car sales.Chevrolet is the only GM brand which is sold in India.GM will continue to operate Talegaon factory as export-only unit.

19. Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni has won the prestigious Dan David prize as recognition for his contributions made in the field of astronomy.He has been credited for building and conducting the Palomar Transient Factory, which is a large-area survey of the night sky that has turned up with thousands of stellar explosions.

20. Tata Group is the most valuable brand in India at an estimated $13.1 billion, according to Brand Finance, a global brand valuation and strategy consultancy firm.Tata topped the list of India’s 100 most valuable brands once again despite its value declining 4% from $13.7 billion in 2016.

21. Indian cricket team has retained its top position in the latest ICC Test rankings with 123 points.Indian team is six points ahead of second placed South Africa.

22. The GST Council headed by finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finalised tax rates and has approved all the seven rules for the GST regime that is scheduled to be implemented from July 1.Out of 1211 items, 81% of the items will attract tax of 18% or less. Only the remaining 19% of items will attract a highest rate of 28%

23. The 24th bilateral exercise involving Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy has commenced in South China Sea. SIMBEX stands for “Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercises “The exercise will be held from May 18, 2017 to May 24, 2017.

24. A team of scientists from the United States have discovered the first natural human antibodies that are capable of neutralizing and protecting animals against all three major disease-causing ebola viruses. The findings could lead to the discovery of first effective ebolavirus therapies and vaccines.

25. A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar has banned open defecation and waste dumping on the floodplains of the Yamuna.The tribunal has also ordered the Delhi government and the municipal corporations to immediately take action against those polluting industries which function in residential areas.

The above weekly current affairs digest has been compiled by Sagrika Mehta.